Steam Blog

There are those who say its much better to give than to receive. For the rest of us, the greatest gift is gifts. And now its easier than ever to receive gifts, or even, if you must, give them. In your inventory youll find a new Pending Gifts tab where you can view gifts offered to you and gifts youve offered to your friends. You can accept a gift to add to your game library or store in your inventory for later on both the web and in the Steam client.

And to ensure you dont miss a gift, a new item in your inventory, or a friend invite, theres now a notification flag at the top of the Steam client that lets you know you have things to act on and quick links to get you there.

Over the years, Steam has delivered a lot of bits to a lot of people. Delivering content is really at the core of Steam, and we have been working on improving that core. As of today, you can download some of the content on Steam using all-new server and client code to get the job done.

The new content system is designed to do two things: deliver better download rates in more places around the world, and also to simply streamline the publishing process on Steam, ultimately making it possible to ship more games than we would have been able to with the old system.

The maximum aggregate bandwidth of the system will be greater than the current system; this will help us satisfy spikes in demand when theres a big release. We will also be able to send content from more places, to better serve people all around the globe. All the content on the new system is sent via HTTP; this is more firewall-friendly than the current system, and will automatically take advantage of web-caching proxies installed at ISPs.

Another way that the new content system improves the bandwidth picture is by requiring each user to download less data. With the Steam content system thats been in place for a few years now, if an individual file on disk were modified by a game update, your client had to download the whole file. That can be painful when the file in question is really large. The new system supports delivering only the differences between the old and new files, meaning game updates will be much smaller overall.

These changes have given us an opportunity to write new tools for game developers and content publishers that simplify the process of both publishing and updating a game on Steam. Simplifying the publishing process means it takes the partner and us less time to ship each product, so we can ship more stuff to more users.

In addition, the new content system will allow us to build several new features that weve often heard requested. Upcoming client releases will include things like download scheduling, bandwidth throttling, and prioritizing which games get downloaded first. Youll also be able to download an update to a game while youre playing that game; Steam will apply the update after you exit the game.

Over time, more and more of the content on Steam will be delivered using this new system. Soon, Dota 2 will be delivered using it. In the meantime, if youd like to try out this new content system you can do so right now; if you download a 1280x720 (HD) trailer from the store, it will happen via the new content system. Give it a try!

Steam's voice chat system now leverages the SILK audio codec, developed and used by Skype, makers of the world's most popular voice communication service. The SILK codec provides a significant quality improvement over Steam's previous voice technology, at the cost of some increase in bandwidth usage. Steam Voice used to require 15 kbps of bandwidth, whereas SILK is a dynamic bit rate protocol which varies in its use of bandwidth between 8 and 30 kbps, depending on the range of data in the voice signal and current network conditions.

As of today's Steam client update, voice chat using SILK is available to all users of Steam. To start using Steam chat with SILK, simply click the 'Start Voice Chat' button within a friend or group chat on Steam. You can access chat from both the friends list at the desktop, or while in game using Steams in-game overlay. You'll find voice chat connectivity and reliability have also been improved with this release.

Steam chat with SILK is now also automatically available for all games that take advantage of the Steamworks Voice API. Valve's own Portal 2, set to release in mid-April, uses this newly updated system to enable voice chat in its cooperative gameplay mode.

As a Steam account holder, you can now take advantage of Steam Guard, a new feature of Steam that enables an additional level of account security. Your account may already be protected by Steam Guard, as the new feature automatically begins protecting your account once you've verified your email address with Steam.

With Steam Guard enabled, anyone attempting to login as you from an unrecognized computer or browser must first provide additional, one-time authorization. A special access code will be sent to your contact email address, and this code must be entered into Steam before your first login on an unfamiliar computer is complete. You will also be notified if any login attempts from computers other than those you've authorized occur. Steam Guard essentially acts as a form of "User Rights Management," where you as the user have greater control over access to your stuff.

Steam Guard, a new Steam account security feature offering two-factor authentication, is now available in beta. As a Steam account holder, you can now take advantage of this additional level of account security, further prohibiting others from gaining access to your account.

As a beta participant, once you've verified your email address with Steam, Steam Guard becomes available for your use and is enabled for your Steam account by default.

With Steam Guard enabled, anyone attempting to login as you from an unrecognized computer must first provide additional, one-time authorization. A special access code will be sent to your contact email address, and this code must be entered into Steam before your first login on an unfamiliar computer is complete. You will also be notified if any login attempts from computers other than those you've authorized occur. Steam Guard essentially acts as a form of "User Rights Management," where you as the user have greater control over access to your stuff.

"Account phishing and hijacking are our top support issues," said Gabe Newell, President of Valve. "With Steam Guard, we've taken a big step towards giving customers the account security they need as they purchase more and more digital goods."

Gabe demonstrated further development of Steam Guard today at the CeBIT computing trade show in Hannover, Germany. In addition to email-based authentication, Steam Guard will soon offer other forms of secondary authentication, such as Intel® Identity Protection Technology, a hardware-based security feature available with the new 2nd Generation Intel® Core™ and Core™ vPro® processors. With IPT, secondary authentication is effortless, as it is provided by the chipset itself.

Steam just made it easier to take and share screenshots of your favorite games.

Press your hotkey (F12 by default) while in any game that runs the Steam Overlay to take screenshots. Then publish them to your Steam Community profile as well as Facebook, Twitter, or Reddit to share them with your friends.

With 1GB of personal Steam Cloud storage, you can upload thousands of screenshots to show off your best moments for all your friends to see. Or you can make them private if you'd rather keep them to yourself.

Use the new screenshot manager to upload your screenshots while still in the game, or at a later time. You can customize your screenshot hotkey by visiting the In-Game section of Steam settings.

To give the new screenshots feature a try, just restart Steam to get the latest client update.

Steam screenshots are now available in beta. Now players can use Steam to take and share screenshots from any game that runs the Steam overlay. If youd like to help test the feature, please opt-in to the latest Steam client beta by going to Steam > Settings > Account then changing your beta participation to Beta Update.

Once youve signed up for the beta, press F12 in any game to take a screenshot. Screenshots are automatically uploaded to the Steam Cloud after exiting the game, or can be manually uploaded while playing through the in-game overlay. Screenshots can be managed through the Steam Community web site and can be published to your profile to share with your friends. Games that use DirectX 8 and earlier are not yet supported.

You can adjust the screenshot hotkey by visiting the In-Game section of Steam settings. If you prefer to not have your screenshots automatically upload to the Steam Cloud, you can set this in the Downloads + Cloud section of settings. Currently in the works is an interface that will allow you to manage your local collection of screenshots and choose which ones to delete or upload to the cloud manually.

The feature is still a work-in-progress while in beta and well be fine-tuning it over the next couple of weeks. Please visit the Steam Screenshots thread in the Steam Forums to point out bugs, suggest improvements or provide general feedback

By now were all used to having computers tell us what they think well like. If youre like us, some internet-retail superbrain has decided that youre very interested in anything to do with weed killer, because you once accidentally looked at a product page or advertisement for Weed Killer Plus. Well, this week weve made the Steam backend brains smarter about how they compute recommendations, by having them factor in things like which games you actually play (as opposed to just what you own, or what youve looked at). The results are good, but ultimately we think that any such system can only go so far. Because, really, even if the computer gets it right, its still just a computer.

So were harnessing a force much more powerful: your friends. THEY are Steams new recommendation engine. Oh, and so are you.

Steam now lets you share your opinions directly with each other. Tell all your friends why they should really try Call of Duty: Black Ops. Tell Uncle Goose why, for the sake of his mental health, he should probably spend a day in The Undergarden. Or, check out their recommendations for you  they know you better than you think. And if your friends havent written any recommendations yet, Steam will still suggest games for you based on what theyve been playing lately. We built it because... we think it just makes sense. Try it out and let us know what you think.

...

Meanwhile, the Steam Publishing Team has been playing BIT.TRIP BEAT, where the team was vying for top spot on the friends leaderboards until William went ahead and set a seemingly unachievable score. The team has agreed that from now on, they'll conveniently 'forget' to include William the next time they challenge the group to a leaderboard competition.

Found a game you think your friends should really be playing? Now you can write a recommendation for your friends to share your excitement and start a conversation. Plus, see what games your friends are playing most and what they recommend.

Visit the new 'Recommended For You' page in the Steam Store to find games similar to those you play and love. Steam will suggest games, help you find more content for games you already play, and remind you of items on your wishlist that are on sale.

You can give these improvements a whirl in the latest Beta by visiting Steam client Settings and opting into the Beta Update offered there. And as always, do share your feedback on the Steam Forums.

Note that when recommending a game to your friends, only friends opted in to this beta will be able to see your recommendation.

The Steam Wallet has officially been released along with the Team Fortress 2 Mann Co. Store, where players can now purchase items right within TF2.

With Steam Wallet, you can add value to your Steam account using any of the payment methods supported by Steam. Funds in your Steam Wallet may then be used to buy any item available in the Steam store on an in-game store. You can load up your Steam Wallet ahead of time, or wait until checkout. Also, different payment methods can be combined to make a single purchase.

Once you've added funds to your wallet, that money will be used by default for subsequent Steam store purchases. But if you'd prefer to reserve your wallet balance for in-game purchases of Mad Milk, Holy Mackerel and Bushwackas, no problem -- simply select another payment method during checkout. Your wallet funds will be there the next time you're ready to shop at Mann Co., or any other in-game store.